Joe Salatino and Self Efficacy - Assignment Example

? The Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American Case Study Discuss how Joe could address the importance of understanding how people form perceptions and make attributions about others with his employees The concepts related to social perception and attribution is of great significance for Joe Salatino and his organization named Great Northern American. Social perception can be defined as the procedure of selecting and understanding of the information regarding how an individual views others as well as oneself. Since information regarding the people is often subjective by its nature and open to explanation, the behavior of an individual is based upon what reality is rather than the reality itself. Perception and attribution are of greater significance in comprehending and administering of the organizational behavior, since all the decisions along with behavior in Great Northern American tend to be impacted by the way in which its members interpret and make meaning out of them. When an individual observes people, he/she tries to identify the reasons behind the persons behaving in certain manners. The basis of the attribution theory is that an individual wants to understand the reasons behind the actions that he/she is taking and others take. An individual further wants to attribute reasons to behaviors he/she observes instead of assuming that these behaviors are random. It is quite significant to mention the fact that attributions are crucial for Great Northern American since perceived reasons of behavior may impact managers’ and employees’ judgments and actions. Joe Salatino perceives the fact that in order to keep the sales force motivated and dedicated, it is quite significant to spend money on commissions and bonuses. It is worthy of mentioning the fact that there are two forms of attributions. They are internal attribution and external attribution. The internal attribution is likely to take place when an individual believes that a particular behavior has been chosen freely, it was deliberate in nature and was quite low in terms of social desirability. When the salespersons at Great Northern American are not capable of handling the self-starting selling intensity, they may leave the company because of their dissatisfaction level. Such behavior is generally called internal attribution. On the other hand, an external attribution takes place when it is believed that the behavior was not freely selected and it was unintended. For instance, despite Joe Salatino offering his employees with bonus and commission for good job done, if the employees demonstrate the tendency to leave the organization, then it can be identified as external attribution (Martinko, 2004). It is found that Joe Salatino felt that his employees were not much effective. Some employees were functioning very effectively and were earning more than the salary of the top producers because they were capable of generating huge sales for the company. On the other hand, most of the employees were leaving the company since they were not capable of handling the ‘self-starting selling intensity’ and disorder. In addition to these, Joe Salatino noted that it took for an employee a year to develop good account base. When Joe Salatino confronted with these issues he tried to realize what caused those events. When Joe Salatino experienced unpleasant outcomes, attributions could assist him in identifying and avoiding the behaviors as well as other factors that led them to happen. On the contrary, when Joe Salatino experienced pleasant outcomes, he would prefer understanding the behavior that led to such actions of the customers as well as employees. It can be noted that such attribution and perception theory can assist Joe Salatino to identify what actions the company must take in order to bring significant improvements in the behaviors of the employees whose performances have been below satisfactory level in comparison to those employees whose performances are satisfactory. Therefore, it is the proper understanding of the behavior of the employees that can assist Joe Salatino in knowing how people outline perceptions as well as make attributions about others with his employees. This can help Joe Salatino to devise action plan according to the observed attributions of the employees so that they can be provided with necessary feedbacks and supports at the right point of time (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2007). Evaluate which learning theory (either operant conditioning, social learning theory, or the learning theory) would be most appropriate for Joe to apply in this situation and explain why It is quite significant for Joe Salatino to have proper knowledge of varied learning theories because it will assist Joe at improving the behavior of his sales force at his organization. Capability of learning offers Joe Salatino and his sales force with the ability to adapt to the changing environment. The main objective of the learning perspective is to assess the impact of experience as well as function of the environment upon the development. There are two major types of learning theories that Joe Salatino can apply in his organization. They are traditional learning theories and social learning theories. In the context of this case study, social learning theory can be applied by Joe Salatino. The social learning theory generally focuses upon two main perceptions. One is the association between cognition, environment and behavior. The other one focuses upon learning by means of modeling or observations (Mesa Community College, 2012). The social learning theory centers upon learning occurring in social situations. It believes upon the fact that an individual tends to learn from one another and thus exchange of information takes place. There are various principles of social learning theory that can be applied by Joe Salatino. It states that people learn when they observe the actions and the behaviors of others and the results of those behaviors. Learning may take place without alteration in the behavior of an individual. Cognition has a significant role in learning (The Florida State University, 2012). In Relation To Case Study In the context of the case study, it can be stated that social learning theory can be applied. The reasons behind the adoption of the social learning theory are that it will assist Joe Salatino to resolve the problems that are being faced the company. Those employees who are not performing well at the organization can learn by observing the behaviors and actions of good performers. This mechanism tends to be quite beneficial to Great Northern American, since by learning through observation tends to reduce the training cost for the companies to a certain extent and the impacts of such learning are quite immediate. Discuss ways that Joe could apply the learning theory you selected to improve employees’ performance Social learning theory states that motivation among the employees occurs not only from the direct experience related to rewards and punishments but it may also result from a person’s thinking and beliefs. It can assist Joe to improve the behavior of the co-workers at his workplace. When the behaviors of the individuals are driven towards the attainment of the goals of the organization, then in such circumstances it becomes easier for the companies to improve the organizational performances. Social learning theory helps individuals to comprehend the fact that their performances are related to desired rewards. Social learning theory maximizes the self-directed learning and an individual tends to learn in social setting. It will help Joe in setting clear goals and work towards the attainment of the objectives in the organization. It is with the alteration in the behavior that the contemporary managers like Joe Salatino are capable of resolving the problems of production, meet the challenges that they confront from foreign competitions and also prepare the other team members to respond effectively with the changes in the business environment. Social learning theory can help Joe to enhance desirable behaviors with the help of favorable reinforcements rather than declining undesirable behaviors. Social learning theory helps the managers to comprehend why similar employees behave in different manners at similar situations at different point of time. Social learning theory is different from work motivation and operant-conditioning theories. The reason behind this fact is that social learning theory pays due attention towards three processes such as vicarious learning, symbolism and self control. It coordinates the internal and the external approaches in a manner that changes into improved techniques for managing the human resources in the Great Northern American (Wood & Bandura, 1989). Social learning theory can help Joe in strengthening the decision making processes of the individuals at the organization and thus the overall effectiveness and efficiency can be enhanced to a greater extent and attainment of the personal and group goal can be ensured within the stipulated period of time (Akers & Jensen, 2007). Determine how Joe could leverage an understanding of the value of self-efficacy to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople Self-efficacy is comprehended as a belief of an individual with regard to his/her capabilities to generate the required levels of performance, having an impact over events. It identifies the ways in which people feel about an event, think, motivate themselves and behave. These beliefs tend to generate varied impacts via four main methods. They comprise selection process, motivational process, affective process and cognitive process. It is the strong sense of efficacy that leads to accomplishment of the goals in the organization. It further enhances human attainment and personal well-being in numerous ways. When people are very much confident in their capabilities, they prefer taking the difficult tasks as challenges rather than considering them as threats. Because of such efficacious viewpoint, intrinsic interests as well as deep obsession are generally fostered. People try to set challenging goals and thus uphold strong dedication towards the task. They try to increase and sustain their efforts in light of the failure. When they fail in any task, they try to recover their sense of efficacy. They feel that failure is because of inadequate efforts or lack of knowledge regarding the particular event. They tend to move towards intimidating situations with greater assurance that they can control the situation. When a person demonstrates such behavior, it leads to personal actions, minimizes stress and decreases the susceptibility to depression. On the other hand, a person who doubts that he/she would not be capable of accomplishing a particular task keeps himself/herself away from such tasks and views it as a personal threat. These individuals possess low goals and weak dedications towards the goals that they want to pursue. When such individuals are faced with difficult situations, then they try to reside upon their personal shortcomings on the problems that they face and upon all other adverse results rather than focusing upon the way in which the tasks can be completed successfully (Eisenberger, Conti-D’Antonio, & Bertrando, 2005). Joe Salatino needs to involve the practice of recognition and offering incentives to create an impact of self-efficacy as a significant organizational planning method in the process of hiring. It is significant for Joe Salatino to consider while hiring to train their employees’ with social learning method so that they can learn by observing and ultimately the sales and profit of the company can be enhanced. It is significant for the new employees to comprehend the evaluation system of the company such as Friday’s blue lights which demonstrates the discounts provided by the company and with very minimum supervision the workers must self-motivate themselves and communicate with the customers that particular day to enhance the sales of the company and for workers commission. If Joe Salatino hires an employee who possesses low self-efficacy, in such circumstances, he takes a risk of creating deficiency in the learning practices of his leaders and supervisors. He further limits the sales of the company since employees with low efficacy are not capable of putting full effort and enhance the productivity. On the contrary, if he hires an employee with high self efficacy, then he will be capable of reaching the goals of the organization. They will further be capable of learning by observing that can increase the sales and revenues of the company and can also enhance customer loyalty to a great extent. Therefore, it is significant for Joe Salatino to take into consideration workers with self-efficacy in order to attain the objectives of the organization (Delevante, 2011). References Akers, R. L., & Jensen, G. F., (2007). Social learning theory and the explanation of crime. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers Delevante, P. N. (2011). Joe Salatino and self efficacy. Retrieved from http://strayer.academia.edu/PatriceDelevante/Papers/533052/Joe_Salatino_and_Self-Efficacy Eisenberger, J., Conti-D’Antonio, M., & Bertrando, R. (2005). Self-efficacy: Raising the bar for all students / Joann Eisenberger, Marcia Conti-D'Antonio, Robert Bertrando. United States: Eye on Education. Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. W. (2007). Organisational behavior. United States: Cengage Learning. Martinko, M. J. (2004). Attribution theory in the organizational sciences: theoretical and empirical contributions. North California: IAP. Mesa Community College. (2012). Learning perspective. Retrieved from http://www.mesacc.edu/dept/d46/psy/dev/Fall98/Theories/Learn.html The Florida State University. (2012). Ronald Akers and social learning theory. Retrieved from http://criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/akers.htm Read More